Gesila, Excellent buys and I am pretty much drooling over those beauties. I am only 3 hours away and visit MI from time to time and I should plan to visit Walters Garden. I have been trying to find out more but their website really does not show they are open for retails. Talking about enablers. There are so many of you here in this forum. Thank you. Vivian

From everything I've read, and I've done pretty extensive research, DG, if all your windows are failing it's most likely the installer. Can't be sure, but it's not likely that "a bunch" of windows would all fail simultaneously, one bad one maybe, but not all. Thermal Industries, while not the top of the heap has a reasonably good reputation, and has been around for 50 years so I'd try to stay on the installers to resolve this. I doubt Thermal would be in business this long if this was consistently a problem. I have some Thermal Industries sliders which have performed fine, but this company may not be the best window for my current needs. All of the comments I've received have been very helpful. I've decided to go with the Sunrise Pro. Thanks again.

Hey Brooks! Congratulations on building your house! That's a dream not all people can realize. I sure understand when remodeling or building a home, money can get tight and everything ends up costing more than you originally thought it would. And things can get frustrating! My personal opinion, and it's just an opinion, is that both you and your window contractor made mistakes, none of them with any malice a forethought. Generally speaking, the window dealer sounds disorganized. This is true of a lot of small businesses. The guy may be very good at his or her particular craft, but less so at the business size of things. Since you gave him the option of holding the order until you were ready, and he said it wouldn't be any problem for him to store them, then he should have found a way to do that. Also, he should have done a much better job of explaining the pricing with the various features. You should have been quoted a total price for the windows with the SDLs and the total price without. Then you could have seen the actual difference in pricing. You also should have gotten an itemized work order for the original order and then another one after you made changes. On your end, you didn't do your due diligence. I haven't even started my remodel yet, and I have spent hundreds of hours researching. I bought an old manufactured home and am renovating it top to bottom. I can honestly say there are only a handful of people who know more about mobile homes and renovating them than I. You should have known the consequences of removing the SDLs. You should have asked your dealer a hundred questions, and you should have asked for total quotes for both options. And even though it was the contractor's goof for not having the room to store them, it was not his job to supply manpower to re-arrange stuff in your barn. My point is that contractors are people, and from time to time, they will make unintentional errors. It is YOUR job to know as much as possible about what's happening and to ask questions. It sounds to me like the dealer is a decent fellow and isn't ripping you off. It was a case of poor communication on both your parts. Again, this is just my personal opinion. Have a great day! :-)

koffman, I found those pictures on facebook and they were too beautiful not to show. Unfortunately I could find no one to sell them. They are from Don Rawson, maybe you can look them up. I would love to have that Gator Hide! I got Deep Pockets from a friend this spring and Leapin Lizard, but the are not so heavily corrugated as the ones above :-(